So Obvious
by Mediancat
Summary: Buffy and Willow try to figure out who among a quarter of amateur spellcasters hurt a Sunnydale High teacher, only to learn the answer should have been obvious all along . . .


Disclaimer: Spider, Dorothea, Samantha, Dawson and Mr. Marsden are my creations. Everyone else belongs to Joss and some big powerful production companies. Please don't kill me.

X X X X X

Eventually, they'd chased the four amateur spellcasters down. All four of them, of course, denied being the one who'd caused. Mr. Marsden's car to crash last Tuesday night, but of course, in the grand tradition of all great mysteries, all four of them had a powerful motive. Buffy had been lucky to escape Mr. Marsden's attentions; thankfully, the man taught mostly 9th grade classes, and Buffy hadn't been in Sunnydale then. Willow had had the misfortune, though, and said that the man had yelled at her ten times during the course of the school year for utterly trivial infractions, and that she'd been one of the lucky ones because Marsden had LIKED Willow. When it came to the students he didn't like, though, the man could be vicious. As hateful as the man was, though, he'd never quite done anything worth being killed for.

All four of the students now seated silently at various desks in Mr. Marsden's classroom, prevented from bolting by Giles, who stood by the door and looked as menacing as he could. Not that Buffy thought any of these four could get by her, but it never hurt to be careful.

Closest to Buffy sat Dorothea Butler -- her friends, what few there were, called her Dee. She combined a reputation as a bit of a troublemaker -- Snyder had even told her once, to Buffy's great amusement, "You don't want to grow up to be like Summers, do you?" -- with a thorough disrespect for authority. Marsden had told her that if she wasn't careful she'd end up exactly like her mother; as Dee's mother had died ten years ago of a drug overdose, this had been exactly the right way for Marsden to twist the knife.

Spider Griffith was right behind Dee. Spider was a basketball player on Sunnydale's JV squad, and though he wasn't very good it was something he was very proud of. Then Marsden had docked him ten points for misspelling his name -- purely by mistake, as Spider was neither brain nor dolt -- and this had dropepd his grades below that needed to stay on the team..

Dawson Walking Bear sat sullenly in the corner furthest from Buffy. Dawson had privately corrected Marsden on a detail about a Mayan ritual -- but it turned out that Dawson had been the one who'd made the mistake, and Marsden had gleefully shown the class the error of Dawson's ways, telling him, "That's why you're the student and I'm the teacher."

This led directly in to why Dawson's girlfriend Samantha Salerno had gotten in trouble. She'd stood up during Marsden's attack on her boyfriend and told him how mean and unfair he was being. The teacher promptly went on to prove how mean and unfair he could be by nailing Samantha with three days of detention, ruining a flawless record of good behavior she'd maintained ever since kindergarten.

And so the four students, one of whom was a dabbler in pagan rituals, decided to cast a spell to make sure that Marsden got exactly what was coming to him -- as close to revenge, Willow informed her, that a Wiccan could go and not be violating the Rede of "Do as thou will, an it harm none." The ritual in question called for all four of them to empty their minds while the spell's energy gathered.

Exactly where the problem had started, unfortunately. One of the four had deliberately concentrated on making sure that great harm came to Marsden, and at almost the same time his car crashed. The only reason they'd known it was magic had been that the car had crashed into the yard directly next door to Buffy's, and she and Willow had run outside to help. While Buffy had pulled the man from the burning wreckage -- probably saving his life --Willow, now well attuned to the presence of magic, had nearly been bowled over by its presence. Leaving mom to answer questions for the police, they'd called in Giles and gone looking for the source.

The students had been walking out of this very classroom when found, and when Buffy'd called out for them to stop they'd scattered. Chasing them down had been more of a nuisance than anything else.

And then when Willow had explained to them what had happened -- well, none of the four really looked too sorry, but all four made the appropriate noises about not really wanting Marsden dead.

And so, not allowed to beat the answer out of them, Buffy was reduced to trying to find out who'd done it private-detective style. But she couldn't have felt more ridiculous than she looked, and got nowhere. Either all four of them were in on it together -- and Willow seemed sure they weren't -- or three of them were genuinely innocent and the fourth was an excellent liar. Not that Dee, Dawson, Spider or Samantha were any of them being overly helpful. Dawson talked in monosyllables, Samantha seemed more interested in protecting her boyfriend than in covering for herself, Spider swore a lot, and if Dee said two words the whole time Buffy didn't hear either of them.

So Willow got up from behind the teacher's desk and motioned for Buffy to join her near Giles. Puzzled, the Slayer joiner her friend and her Watcher. "Okay," Willow said, "I say we accelerate the rule of three here. Whichever one caused the crash will see their actions turned against them three times as strongly."

"Willow," Giles whispered, "You do know we're not actually interested in killing the student in question, right?"

"Right now I'm torn between giving them a medal and beating them within an inch of their life," Buffy said. "Oooh! I know! Let's do both!"

Buffy was spared the full power of Giles' deathray glare by Willow, who said, "We have a Slayer here to protect her . . . and, besides, since Mr. Marsden didn't die I'm fairly sure whoever's guilty won't either." She paused. "I'm just glad this spell was cast under Wiccan rules . . . after all, Ethan Rayne casts spells all the time and they never seem to directly backfire . . ."

"I still don't like the idea," Giles said. "We would be exposing the person in question to severe danger. Let's save it for a last resort."

"I have it," Buffy said. "I wonder if they know about the rule of three . . ."

Willow and Giles then got up and informed the four ninth-graders of what could potentially happen to them. Giles described the rule, then Willow and Giles traded off four or five examples -- one of which, she was mildly shocked to note, was what had happened to Xander and Amy after last Valentine's Day's love spell . . . and another of which involved someone being struck permanently blind. (Or so Giles alleged.)

Dee Butler squirmed a bit. Dawson and Samantha clung to each other a bit more protectively.

But if the person with evil intent confessed now, Willow and Giles would do the best they could to shield the person from the consequences . . . but otherwise, oh well, I mean, some people can get along fine without their legs . . . .

That finally did it. The guilty party confessed.

X X X X X

The next day, Buffy told the story to Xander and Oz while sitting in the library. But just as she was about to tell them who'd done it, Xander shouted out "Hold on!" Then quickly wrote something down and showed it to Oz. The guitarist seemed puzzled until Xander explained, "I might need a witness. Okay, Buff. Whodunit?"

Oz asked a question first. "Were Willow and Giles able to help the guilty party?"

"Dunno yet," Buffy confessed. "Willow thinks so . . . but, of course, seeing as this is the only punishment they're going to get, they didn't deflect it entirely. But nothing's happened to them yet. I'm thinking the anticipation'll get them as much as anything." A dramatic pause, and then, "It was Dee."

"I _knew _it!" Xander slammed his hand on the table. "See, Buff, you didn't need to do all of that bluffing, all you needed to do was ask the old Xand-Man." He showed Buffy his scrap of paper, on which he'd scribbled down the name Dorothea Butler.

"How did you know that?" Buffy asked in amazement. "Oz?"

"That's the name he wrote down," Oz confirmed.

"It was so obvious," Xander said. Buffy was still confused. "I mean, c'mon, it's the oldest cliche in the book about mysteries! Dee Butler did it!"


End file.
